When X owes Y several debts, X has the right to appropriate a payment which he makes to any of the debts. If he pays, without exercising the riglit, Y may appropriate the pajinent to any del)t. In case a payment is made without ap- propriation at the time, by either X or Y, and subsequently they disagree as to its appropria- tion, the courts will apply it in accordance with their conception of the justice of the case. These conceptions, as announced in various reported decisions, are tending toward the establishment of fixed rules. Sucli rules are applied, however, only to voluntary payments, of which the debtor had the power of appropriation. If, for ex- ample, a payment is made under judicial process, as upon the sale of the debtor's property under the foreclosure of a mortgage, it will be ap- propriated ratably toward the claims for which the mortgage was security.
In the second of the above significations, the term aiipropriution is found most frequentl.v in constitutional and statutory provisions. By Article I, Section 9, of the United States Con- stitution, it is declared: "Xo money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by law." In England, "Xot a penny of revenue can be legally expended, except under the authority of some act of Par- liament." The most important statute of this sort is the annual Api)ro])riation Act, by which definite sums are reserved for specified objects. .See the works mentioned under the titles re- ferred to in this article, and for appropriation by a debtor those referred to under the title: C'ontr.ct; for appropriation of funds by the government see Story, Commentaries on the Con- stitKtioii of the United fitates (fiftli edition, Bos- ton, 18111), and Von Hoist, Constitutional Law of the United Htates of .imerica (Chicago, 1887).
APPROVE'MENT. A term relating to the law of connnon (q.v.). It means the inclosing, by the lord of the manor, of a part of the com- mon, or waste lands of the manor, for the pur- pose of cultivation and improvement. When the acts of approvement and inclosure were com- pleted, the land so inclosed lost its character as common land, and was converted to the use of the lord. In general, the lord could not exercise this right to the exclusion of those having rights of common, and, therefore, he could only apjirove a part of the common land. Consult: Pollock and Maitland, History of Enfilish Law (second edition, Boston, 1809), and authorities referred to under CoMMOX.
APPROX'IMA'TION (Lat. approximare, to approach, from ad, to + proximus, nearest). A term used in mathematics to designate a process or a calculated result not rigorously exact, but which approaches the truth with continually increasing exactness, or near enough for a given purpose; e.g., the process of solving a higher numerical equation by Horner's method gives a root that, as the process is extended, ap- proaches the true root with continually increas- ing exactness; multiplying the diameter of a circle by 3.1416 gives the circumference near enough for most purposes. It should be re- membered that a result cannot be more accurate than the data, and that in mensuration the data are not usually carried beyond thousandths of a unit; hence the great importance of ap- proximation, even in ordinary arithmetical cal- culations.
APPUI, d'pwc-'. See Point d'.ppdi.
APPUN, iip'pi.in, Karl Ferdinand (1820- 72). A German naturalist, born at Bunzlau. In 1849 he undertook a journey of explora- tion to South America, where he remained for nineteen years. The three years from 1868 to 1871 he spent in his native country, after which he returned to his wanderings in South America, where his death was caused by an accident with sulphuric acid. Appun's studies were extended over a large area in Venezuela, Brazil, and British Guiana. His published works include: Unter den Tropen, Wanderungen diirch Venezuela, am Orinoco, durch Britisch- Guayana, und am Amasonenstrom in den, Jahren 181,9-68 (.Jena, I87I).
APPUR'TENANCE (O. F. apurtenance, apartenance, from Lat. ad, to + pertinere, to belong). In law, an incorporeal property right, which is an incident to, and belongs with, real estate. Upon conveyance of the principal real estate, the apjiurtenances pass to the grantee as an incident without being expressly mentioned in the grant. An appurtenant right is the antithesis of a right in gross, which is a property right, attached to the person of the owner. It is not an incident of real estate, and may be conveyed apart from it. Appurtenances are classified as profits, or rights of common, and easements. A profit appurtenant is the right of the owner of real estate, as such, to take k profit or portion of the product from the land or water of another, as to pasture cattle, cut timber, catch fish, or the like, in common with the owner of the land. An easement appur- tenant is any right of the owner of real estate, as such, in or o'er the land of another, which does not involve taking any profit or product from the land, as a right of «ay, or the right to have light and air pass over the land of another. See Easejient; Profit; Servitude; and the au- thorities referred to under the title Real Property.
APRAXIN, a-priiksln, Fedoh Matveyeitch: ( ltJ71-1728) . A distinguished Russian admiral. When hardly twelve years of age he entered the service of Peter the Great, who conceived a great attachment for him, which lasted during the life of the monarch. After the year 1700 he became the most powerful and influential person at the court of the Czar, who made him chief admiral of the Russian navy, of which in fact Apraxin may be considered the creator. While Peter was fighting the Swedes in the north, Apraxin was building war-vessels, fortresses, and wharves in the south. In 1707 he was appointed president of the admiralty; in 1708 he defeated the Swedish general Lybeker in Ingermanland, and saved the newly built city of Saint Petersburg from destruction; in 1710 he captured the important town of Viborg, in Finland, and in 1711 commanded in the Black Sea during the Turkish War. The following year he returned to the north; and in 1713, with a fleet of two hundred vessels, he sailed along the coast of Finland, took Helsingfors and Borga, and defeated the Swedish fleet. The result of his great successes was that at the peace of Nystad, in 1721, Russia obtained possession of the coveted Baltic Provinces, and became the leading power in the Baltic Sea. In 1715, and again in 1718, Apraxin was found
